Fortunately I have no plans to become an engine mechanic, the head is staying on for now. I think it's purely timing from here on out.
Gotcha! I'll try and find something equivalent here.
No, engine ran fine with it off, it was just a stupid idea to disconnect it. It stopped running a while after it was reconnected. It wasn't starting because the carb was filthy, probably due to some old s*** coming through from the head.
Just took it for a quick run and it needs the timing...
Been trying to work out why she won't start. Was good after tweaking the carb using the workshop service manual six starts ago and slowly faded out each start after that. It's been completely sealed up during that time, but I did reconnect the overflow feed from the engine's head head back to...
Are there any off-the-shelf ODB-II setups to add metrics to older vehicles that don't have ODB-II normally? I ask this question every few years and I'm getting scarily close to having to make one myself.
Well, after discovering the fuel mix was way too rich and re-adjusting the timing it seems ok. I've just been driving it around for 20 minutes and now I'm parked up for 10 to see if I can get it to play up.
One thing I'm noticing is when it's rolling downhill with no pedal the exhaust is...
Since the carb was running as rich as possible, could that have been the source of the backfiring? Like it was always dumping petrol but it needed the exhaust to get hot enough?
Thing is, it was ALSO accompanied by loss of power. This leaves me with:
Something to do with ignition or timing...
Hey, that's brilliant. I never thought of using the timing light to check individual cylinders firing.
Didn't think of checking for flooding either, so I'll add that to the list.
I'm certainly hoping that it's not mechanical.
I didn't realise that it could be advanced that much, that's where it was when I got it home last week. I've since done a test and redone the timing by ear using the guide above and then checked with the timing light and it was spot on.
My mechanical mate took another look. My fuel/idle settings were completely fxxxed, so we adjusted that. Then we came up with a plan.
Step 1 is to make it die again and test the compression while it's still failing.
Step 2 is to remove and carefully clean the carb because it's *filthy*. Also...
Brand new points, although the screws in them are s***. They're set correctly but seemed to have shifted yesterday so I tightened them extra good.
I'd heard that if you set the timing while it's around 650rpm you don't need to disconnect the vacuum, so I haven't actually done that yet. Got...
> Sounds eerily familiar.
Dunno. All the symptoms are the same except I've already replaced the ignition wiring. The resistance was pretty bad before but now it's dropped.
I did get the 12v accuspark coil with internal resistance, yup.
So I tested my compression, everything ceilinged out at about 145, all well within 10 PSI of each other. I also bought a feeler gauge and replaced the HT leads.
During a test drive today it crapped out again so I pulled over and...
The coil is an expensive, brand new Accuspark one so I'm loathe to do that. I have two spare, unused ignition coils of the regular sort (that want external ballast that I no longer have) that I can switch to but the spark gap on the plugs has been set specifically for the Accuspark coil. Would...